Ten years ago yesterday, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 Bitcoin for two Papa Johns pizzas in a trade that took place publicly on the Bitcoin Talk forum.

Bitcoin Pizza ad from 2010 | Source: BitcoinTalk.org

At the time, the transaction was largely laughed at who would want some worthless internet coins for two steaming hot pies worth $30-40 in aggregate? But, as we now know, that was the first Bitcoin transaction for a real-world item ever.

Since then, May 22nd has been deemed Bitcoin Pizza Day, which cryptocurrency investors celebrate every year by buying pizza with cryptocurrency if possible.

Laszlos transaction has been deemed so fundamentally important that popular crypto analyst Mati Greenspan opined that without that one transaction, BTC wouldnt be where it is today.

Though theres an unfortunate part of this transaction: the 10,000 Bitcoin once owned by the programmer and what could have been with that wealth.

Today, 10,000 BTC is worth just shy of $100 million at $92 million, meaning that those two pizzas cost $46 million a pop.

Many have joked about this about the wealth that Laszlo could have made if he HODLed, but there might be an odd silver lining to this part of the story.

According to Nic Carter partner at Castle Island Ventures and a co-founder of Coin Metrics explained in a recent Twitter thread that theres a possibility Laszlo decided to spend his BTC fortune out of guilt.

Out of guilt for what? For using his GPU to mine Bitcoin in the first instance of non-CPU BTC mining, which was largely looked down upon by Satoshi Nakamoto in a private email exchange eventually shared by Laszlo. Carter wrote:

Im speculating, but its entirely possible that a guilt-ridden Laszlo decided to disgorge some of his GPU-mined BTC by making a series of pizza transactions.

The Coin Metrics founder backed this data by looking at blockchain data, which indicates that the pizza transaction is in line with the movement of the Bitcoin network difficulty and the emails with Satoshi. Thats to say, Laszlo made these transactions to distribute BTC to the community, rather than holding his ill-gotten gains for himself.

Carters speculation has been backed up by comments from the Bitcoin Pizza Guy himself.

Colin Harper reported in 2019 that when he spoke to Laszlo, he was told by the programmer that there was guilt running through Laszlos mind when the topic of GPU mining was brought up by Satoshi Nakamoto:

Thats when I was like, Man, I feel like I crapped up your project. Sorry, dude. He was concerned that some people might be discouraged because they cant mine a block with a CPU. So, I stopped advertising it after that.

Laszlo also purportedly added that he sees the transaction as a win for Bitcoin, not a loss for himself, further corroborating the narrative that the 10,000 Bitcoin transaction was anything but a mistake.

Laszlo has largely abstracted himself from the economic implications of his transaction, yet many think that those two pizzas might be even more valuable than $90 million and much more than $90 million at that in the years to come.

Robert Rich Dad Kiyosaki, for instance, said recently that he thinks Bitcoin will be worth $75,000 in the coming three years. That would mean that the pizzas would be worth well over $500 million.

But even then, considering what Laszlo said, he wouldnt feel bad about spending those BTC.

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